The Government of Galicia has approved the modification of a decree that regulates access to the electronic health records by which public health centers can access their user’s records.
As the President of the Council of Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, noted, a pilot scheme of the integration of care has been running since August with very favorable results in the Volta do Castro area.
The updated law also stipulates the regulation of access that social workers in the Galician Health Service (Servizo Galego de Saúde) will have to EHRs. Healthcare professionals will be able to register their activity in the social and socio-health sections of the patients’ electronic health records.
Seeking to safeguard the security of users, the regulation states: “Access to electronic health records will make it possible to preserve the personal data of the patient separately from the clinical-care information in such a way that anonymity is guaranteed unless the patient gives their consent for them to be kept together”.
However, it also states that for the prevention of risk or serious danger to the health of the population, Health Administrations will be able to access patients’ identification data for epidemiological reasons or to protect public health.
Implementation of the “Trabe Plan” to optimize ICTs in health services
Alberto Núñez Feijóo also announced that, as part of the “Trabe Plan”, around 8 million euros will be invested in the technological modernization of social services in order to increase and improve the coverage and quality of care.
The objective of the project is to establish a social tele-care program that will help users to stay in their homes. To this end, software will be created for the integrated exchange of information between healthcare systems and local and autonomous administrations.
The service will make it possible to predict needs and develop prevention policies, as well as placing an emphasis on individualized care and the autonomy of people who live in their homes (for example, with the constant monitoring project).
With the optimization and integration of ICTs, the Council hopes to save around 30 million euros each year in health services and 4 million euros in social services.
Sources: Europa Press and Federación FAISS
